Editorial

With Main St. filling up with businesses, is Flower St. next?

7/19/12

The innumerable amount of people walking through the
streets of downtown Berlin this season gives a hint at how profitable the area
has become for businesses. As Berlin grows, so does the area around it, and
thus the search for the next center of prosperity in town begins.

When talks began to institute a major renovation project
for Dr. William Henry Park on Flower Street, the community got excited thinking
about invigorating what is now not a prosperous area for businesses.

The park will likely feature improvements such as a new
basketball court, an additional pavilion and additional landscaping, but people
around the community also hope the new park project will bring a special
interest to the area surrounding it.

For at least 20 years, community organizers have staged basketball
tournaments that routinely brought large crowds to Henry Park. About five years
ago, the tournaments stopped because of the community’s waning interest in the
event.

When the project is complete, a soccer field could
accompany the basketball court and would allow more frequent and larger sports
tournaments to be held at the park. Movie nights, in which a large screen would
be erected in the park, could be held as well.

When the Henry Park sub-committee met with the Berlin
Parks Commission last Wednesday, the discussion briefly turned to the potential
for growth there.

If Henry Park turns out to be everything residents using
the park were looking for, it could mean this isn’t the last we hear about
prosperity on Flower Street.